NPP Bar Blog

Manager Communication:  Fairly mellow morning, with theaters definitely filling up throughout the day.  Having an extra pair of hands at Trees (Fran) really helped the first round go very smoothly. JH Hand-off was smooth between daytime crew and closing crew. Today was steady all around, but never got too crazy. Had a good crowd in Trees stick around for the Knicks game (until it was totally out of reach, anyway), and aside from some printer shenanigans, the night ran very smoothly too! - IP BAR Staff Observations:  A new line up of brunch openers with Greg and Matthew, and our trainee (Fran) on day two of training, slid right into an easygoing first round.  Tevon was able to catch us up on the cocktail kegs that kicked last night, and Gabrielle was in shortly after.  Greg got cut first, and Matthew got out of here once all closers were in. JH Greg and Matthew were on their way out as I came in and the closers came in shortly after me. Family meal crossover was ...

Manager Communication: I would say the night was all around pretty gangsta boogie. I got Greg out around 7:30ish. Downstairs had a solid pop for last round with all sold out theaters so I tag teamed that with Gab after Greg did a good job setting us up for success.  I got Tevon out of here around 9:00. - AB2 A full crew bottle emptied out a Thermo Reactive. I was not sure of how exactly to apply the spillage in the POS as spillage. Wasn't sure if I should charge cocktail amount or do the ingredients at cost math so that has not been accounted for. - AB2 Pint glasses were scarce today. I brought out a box of 24. Greg and I searched everywhere and were unable to find them. Plenty of servers were on top of bussing. That's why I ended up opening a fresh box. - AB2 BAR Staff Observations: Everyone was strong today. Good communication and execution on all levels. Greg set Gab up for success and Gab killed in Lobby. Matthew, Tevon, and Patrick were a good team in Tree's. The big t...

Manager Communication: Stacked team tonight. Wyatt set us up well. Jared and Kayla ran a tight ship. Customer Comments: Nothing stood out. BAR Staff Observations: Really great teamwork tonight. Patrick was filling in for Natasha. Matthew was in good spirits FOH Staff Observations: Good crew. I remain a Big Bruce Guy. Bri being back is excellent. Hiring/Training: Day 1 of Fran tomorrow. Sick Leave/ Call outs: None Special Events: John Woods event. Knicks survive (I hear they did it for the Borough this game) The bar does seem to draw a crowd when we play sports with no volume.  Staff Meeting Agenda notes:  Restocked the walk-in with wines.  Let's start keeping two full cases of each wine in there as back up as we head into warmer days. JH 86ed / counts on items: Prep List: I batched the following: 4 FWWM 1 Negroni Keg 1 Karate Kid Special Tevon's List -Cobra Chai -Back in the Jungle -Lemonade -Ohana Means Family -Simple -Arbol Tequila -Ice Tea      R...

Manager Communication:  It seems like lobby bar's trash and recycling was left by the porter team.  If we can donate the walker in the lost and found it is difficult to get to the soda shelf with all that stuff there. -LB The lobby lowboy is leaking fluid that isn't clear. I think Markenson or Vlad needs to pull them out and clean the backs of them. The leak is a DOH violation and possibly indicative that the lowboy needs maintenance.-LB I spoke with Vlad and he confirmed Markenson did clean behind this lowboy, so Gus perhaps we need to have someone take a look and confirm it isn't losing coolant or something.-LB ***Stewart pointed out to me that the carafes keep ending up in the kitchen because they are too tall to stack in the racks, I think a good solution would be for servers on the first floor bring the carafes to the bar for hand washing.  Same goes for any carafes at the end of the night that might go down to the kitchen, bring them to the bar instead. If this seem...

Manager Communication: Doing that fake DOH walk through, oh yeah.  I am opening tomorrow without Ian, he made me aware of this, so I can give my first shot at cleaning and reassembling the bubblers alone. Nervous about this, but hope I remember. If Tevon is allowed to come in early to help me reassemble that would be much appreciated. -LB We had a bar meeting today and discussed this past weekend. Touched on staffing protocol and troubleshooting/contingency plans in potential future catastrophic events. - IP BAR Staff Observations: Today was a mercifully steady evening and the team definitely needed it to be. Everyone is definitely run ragged after this past joyride of a Memorial Day. Lydia and Darius were great during the party. Very personable - however, their preparedness and proactivity left a little to be desired. Just want to reiterate to all openers that regardless of business levels, the entire Trees lounge bar must be fully set up every day. I jumped in to help with a cro...

Manager Communication:    Reinforcing bartenders to have Trees bus tub for runners. There are garbage can lids there now.  Glycol machine is leaking a lot of water under it.-LB I agree with Matt Soler's idea of scheduling closers at 4-4:30 so the restock can happen before family meal and the dinner rush. It would be pragmatic.-LB Saving some Urupan bottles for batched cocktails since it is blue and stands out-LB \ Holy hell, today was insane. Glad I misread my in-time so I could stick around to support the team.-LB Trays are in short supply. -LB There was a lot of juggling we had to do today to make things run effectively. I came in two hours early, Rebecca pulled a double, Lauren opened and stayed til almost 9p, and then Dion and I were the only closers. In order to avoid more than one bartender pulling a 10+ hour shift (Gab, who is incredible), we ran with just Jericho (who also came in early) at Trees and Jeshua at lobby, after I cut Greg around 9p. The scheduling was ...

Manager Communication: 10:42 am, blogging from office. Internet, please hold.  WE ARE SO BACK. Everyone was so great about jumping right back into service - it was like nothing happened. I stationed myself in the lobby for a large portion of the evening to mitigate any confusion the incoming guests had. People were very flexible for the most part, and were very excited that we are once again fully operational.  I had to change several kegs simultaneously tonight, and took the opportunity to do some Keg-Jenga -everything is a little more organized from various deliveries we've received over the past few days that never got properly sorted. Same with the orange wine cases in the walk-in that were stacked up on the floor until I could get to them at the end of last night. They have to remain refrigerated now, so I found some space in the back corner near the STB stuff. - IP Customer Comments: Tried to help a customer in lobby find their ticket, no luck with repeated information.I...

Manager Communication:  I grabbed extra singles from Farrel's and DW so we got $150 extra. I know that we will rip through singles. If it is still down tomorrow we should try and snag more.-LB Internet was able to come back in drips and drabs, but was not stable enough for us to feel confident in bringing theater service back (no one wanted a Thursday evening repeat).  Both bars operated as cash only, with guests able to buy drinks at either bar and bring them into the theaters, just like last night.  Definitely had some business at both bars, with the vast majority of guests being understanding and appreciative of the follow up emails and posted signage. JH I hunted down $190 in singles from several neighborhood friends. We still were scraping by. Ended up being okay for the evening. We will only start tomorrow with $125 in extra singles tomorrow after what’s in the banks - we will need someone to procure singles from somewhere if we are going to operate a cash bar again...

**Ian, my apologies if you added notes to this that never updated** jh Manager Communication:   Ran a modified service due to tech issues. Lobby & Trees Lounge operated as cash-only bars for guests at the bar, and then made sodas for the theaters. We will be running with the same set up tomorrow, unless we hear otherwise before doors. Greg took the cut, as we did not need five bartenders. jh   BAR Staff Observations:  Really could not have asked for a better crew than the one we had tonight. Super positive and attentive, and very appreciative of being kept in the loop on service changes. Way to roll with the punches. jh FOH Staff Observations:   Rebecca stays holding down the service pass and getting the correct information to her fellow servers. jh Prep List:  Tevon crushed his prep shift. Myself and Ian have prepped grapefruits for the cordial, and we will get that going tomorrow morning. jh    Ordering/Receiving/Shipping:   All expected del...

Manager Communication:  Mellow first round in the big theaters, but plenty of the smaller ones filled up quickly, and Th1/2 caught up for their later screenings, too. JH Customer Comments: BAR Staff Observations: Natasha and Matthew really were troopers tonight. Jeshua too. FOH Staff Observations: All of the servers really made the most of a bad situation. Dwight was also very pragmatic Hiring/Training: Sick Leave/ Call outs: Special Events? Staff Meeting Agenda notes:  Bar binders are updated with the new drink specials. JH 86ed / counts on items: Prep List: I made a batch of the new specials **I updated the cog sheet, but not the batch, its actually .75oz of Juliette now, the one sheet isn't updated. It ends up being 38oz. Lets do 1 bottle of Juliette and 5oz of Combier Peach. Run that down.  R&D comp checks: was going to put in $31 for R& D, but the system crashed Over/Short on Banks: Pay Outs:  $15.00 (Events Tablecloths) $100.00 (Shouting at the Scr...

Manager Communication : Ian, like a boss swapped the big boy bubbler up to Trees Lounge. We can revisit the placement/shelf shortening after a couple weeks. -LB Carly caught another broken airpot top, ordered a replacement. -LB I made a batch list for Tevon for Friday. -LB Frozen machine in lobby has been freezing slowly, but this is probably because the bartenders think 5 is the coldest, but Italians do things differently, 1 is the coldest. Jenn if you can touch upon this in the bar update this week please.-LB Bustling night on all three floors, with plenty of second and third round screenings filling up.  Trees also had a fairly decent crowd all night, which tapered off around the same time the initial ST&B service push mellowed. JH BAR Staff Observations:  Solid team on tonight, with both Matthew and Tevon sticking around to get each bar through a busy start to the third round.  Jeshua and Gabrielle closed each bar without issue. JH Special Events?   Just a he...

Manager Communication: What a lovely day.  Met Jenny of T. Edward for a fast and furious chilled red wine tasting and she gave me some spirit samples that might fit in with what I am working on for Summer menu change.-LB Stewart took the shelf that was formerly our soda closet shelf, and now the liquor room is good for flash mob practice once again.-LB Got the Three's fob to float, despite the top mechanism not being able to be pushed down to have been flow up. -LB Another ice bucket broke, brand new. It fell off the wall and it cracked the holder part when it fell. I feel like it would make a lot more sense to get a shelf that we hang on the wall at Trees lounge that we don't need the hook for, with slots for water drainage. -LB Customer Comments: Lots of happy customers during trivia.  BAR Staff Observations: Darius really makes trivia happen with his efficient open. -LB Guys, my first trivia- what a rush. They really lock in. Great group. Maya was in the zone. Darius gets i...

Manager Communication: Threes fob is truly difficult. I tried a bunch to push the flow apparatus down but it is stuck. I have limited dexterity when it comes to this strength. WD-40 would be my guess, but don't want to oil up something that does not need it. -LB Tonight would have been easier to manage with another manager in light of the fact we have no security guard and an event with a lot of cusp-21 year olds and a Final Destination film.  It is not desirable to keep an opener this late, but I could have used Lydia as well, with a large gap of dead time.   Firstly, there was no mention to me that people in this screening were getting tokens to use this evening. When Theater 1 let out and 2 was seating I opted to send Jericho up and take the lobby. I would not have done that if I knew I would need to discount 11 checks in a short period, putting a strain on Dion and James. Very inconvenient choice for the staffing of the evening but all in all not the worst. Mind you t...

Manager Communication: I saw a black bowl on top of the servers lockers yesterday, but wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, however it was still there today. Seems to be days old. -LB I am going to put into circulation some pint glasses, then order more. We definitely break a ton, especially during these busy weekends. I also think we need a few more brown water racks. (I could not find them on webstaurant or in any docs, if anyone knows what type to order.) -LB I broke out the last case of pints. We already broke out all our rocks and pints so I ordered more for these smashing weekends.-LB The compressor/fan are frosting over immediately in the walk-in. Spoke with Dio, he will come in tomorrow 8:30am. I gave Matty 3 bottles of Old Forester Bourbon, did a transfer to foodager on Bevager but just make sure I did it right please.-LB The walk-in is chugging along - still super frosty, but keeping things cold as it should. Hopefully Dio can get to the bottom of the issue tomorrow....

Manager Communication: The walk-in was 43 when I arrived this morning. The back of the unit is frozen and the inside is also frosted over. I turned off the fan for about an hour hoping the frost would fall. Gus knows. We should make sure Ice Medic takes a look at the walk-in.-LB The walk-in's compressor continued to frost over on the outside and the inside. So I defrosted the back and part of the inside with hot water. Hopefully it can melt now and chill out. I posted a sign to make sure the door closes, because that can cause the compressor to amp up to the point of freezing itself. Gus is reaching out to doctors for the walk-in.-LB Ian is now helping defrost it further.  It was going well for a while and then we turned the fan back on, and within an hour, it began to frost over again. I texted Gus, and currently have the fan turned off. - IP UPDATE: Gus popped by and he and I defrosted the fan compartment once again, but unfortunately after about a half hour it froze back over -...

Manager Communication: Good coverage early. Lots of deliveries, Rebecca was rocking payroll. Carly and Jared were rocking it out. -GS I organized the kegs with Matthew at the end of the shift. FYI The Single Cut is a 3 stack. That was the most convenient place I was able to put it in order for the other kegs to fit nicely. That keg is kicking VERY soon. I thought it would kick today. - AB2 Customer Comments: I had a guest in TH7 101 that wanted plasticware for their salad and refused to use silverware. I asked a number of peeps and learned that we don't have any here... It was definitely an odd request but I just ended up getting some from Chipotle for her and told her I got it from there so that she knows we don't have any here for next time. She was happy and seemed fine after that. I just want to verify plasticware here. Is there a reason why we don't? This lady was definitely an odd one and in the minority of someone who would request this but would it be crazy to just...

Manager Communication: Lots of coverage tonight. Pretty steady. Nice pop around the screening. Customer Comments: We had a lady who was pretty dejected that she showed up to the wrong Nitehawk, but her friends came to the right one. I called Charlie, we sorted it out, got her the credit. Turned the bad experience into a good one. BAR Staff Observations: Tevon and Matthew held it down in Natasha's absence. Patrick and Jeshua handled the lobby FOH Staff Observations: Bruce was really on it tonight. Anthony is great, but he never pays his tab in real time. Hiring/Training: Closing in on someone. Sick Leave/ Call outs:  Natasha called out sick.  Marked on 7Shifts. JH Staff Meeting Agenda notes:  Binders have been updated with the FD:B drink special build, and the build sheets for the bars have been updated to be printed and posted tomorrow. JH Lilo & Stitch drink special recipe is on the Drive.  I will email the Staff Description Monday morning, and update the Menu ...

Manager Communication: Markenson really cleaned the bar like a champion. It is immaculate. Also shout out to the porter team for stacking glassware to a reasonable height. Thank you immensely. -LB Jenn if you can take a look for holes in our NA stock for the rest of the weekend. Thank you. I think it will just be lemon juice and limes. -LB I put those thin collins (Film Feast glasses) in the liquor room in blue racks. We got 69 so there may be a few strays out there. I put all the shot glasses (the usual ones) in their boxes and labeled them "shot glasses." Those can be found under the 2 qt store-n-pours in the liquor room. All the random shot glasses I put in that open box with all the random ones. - AB2 Raekwon and Gil ordered food well after their shifts but also well before kitchen last call. My walkie was in and out at times tonight so maybe I didn't hear anything but they did not get their food for 40 minutes. Dion went to the kitchen and grabbed the food. I staff p...

Manager Communication:   Ice machine at Trees has been addressed by Gus the ice champ. -LB The special screening tonight was nicely sold and we had a good amount of people stick around to watch the end of the Pacers game. Darius was a dear and cleared out a decent chunk of product from the Trees lowboys to make it easier to move them to clean behind them tomorrow morning (as was discussed in our meeting today). - IP BAR Staff Observations: Greg and Darius were great in Trees. Darius is always a fun hang at the bar for the guests, and Greg is a beast in the service well - so as a duo they fit nicely together. Patrick stuck around til the sold out 8:30 Sinners in 7 quieted down, and then Lydia easily handled a chill lobby evening. - IP FOH Staff Observations:  Kat is always killin it. - IP Special Events? The screening of "The Bitter Tears..." was well sold and people seemed to really like it! Got a decent bar pop afterward. - IP Staff Meeting Agenda notes: We chatted about m...

Manager Communication:  Very quiet first round, as it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. JH Busy Monday. We have a nice pop in Trees from the softball teams, Knicks folks and general business. I have barely seen James and Dion as we are all just running around the building at the same time.  Broke out more carafes for wine. I think they have gained popularity since menu change. I will try and break out more later, but it has turned into a busy night.  Gus, I am not going to be able to burn ice and clean ice machine tonight.  I feel like we are always short on trays, perhaps we need more?  I threw out a bus tub that was cracked.-LB To update everyone, you will see the ice machine with the front off. It is overproducing ice to the point it was going to overflow. I turned it off. I tried to see if I could clear the sensor, Gus wanted me to try and clean it, but I did not have time today. We need to rescrew the face on, but I wanted to leave the Face/Off to rem...

Manager Communication:  Just reiterating the difficulty of pulling down the full racks at max height. If it helps to make sure there are more dollies downstairs at the end of the night, bar managers can make sure of that.-LB I erroneously rang in some items at Trees Lounge and had to void them to rering them at the correct price. Gil, I was wondering if there is a way to have happy hour discount in the discount button to fix these mistakes without having to void and rering/don't make. Thanks.  Vlad showed me some flies in the lobby trying to go out the window. There are clear sticky fly traps that could catch them, but I wonder if children will just get stuck to them? I put in an order for more of the fly killing traps to put around as we get to hotter weather.-LB  Glassware circulation was a little better tonight - but as we approach the double-whammy of Lilo and Stitch and Mission Impossible, coupled with (I assume) moving Sinners and Thunderbolts to the smaller theater...

Manager Communication: If it could be communicated to the porter team again that they stack the glasses a bit too high at the end of the night. I am 5'10 and I dropped a rack on my face pulling them down to bring them to Natasha. Again with all of my klutzes, I am fine, but it is just dubious to stack heavy glassware this high. Most people are not above 6 feet.-LB Hearing a lot of calls to kitchen for staff food, I thought this was not appreciated by the kitchen?-LB I left the flyers that I got for Film Feast, on top of the box with the outfits for the servers. -LB The rubber stoppers for the rolling glassware holders are in the kitchen, there were like a dozen under the trees dish pit if you can let servers/runners know if they need one for their rack they are in the kitchen, I noticed them trying other things to plug the holes. -LB Broke out a case of pilsner glasses and pint glasses. -LB We have a lot of water for events in the liquor room already. 5 cases came in, are we using...

Manager Communication: I organized the Walk-in a bit with the kegs. Margarita keg is empty and I just connected a new full one on my way out. The empty one is next to the full one and it has been cleaned and it's ready to batch into. Old Fashioned keg should be kicking soon. - AB2 BAR Staff Observations: Patrick and Tevon were on top of it this morning. Love those guys. Homies killed it tonight. I was able to get Tevon out early. Gabrielle killed it solo in the lobby and Natasha, Matthew, & Patrick handled things in Tree's. - AB2 Matthew made a note to pay attention when opener for Tree's sets up on Fridays. A lot of stocking was done right before/during the first serious rush of the night and was not necessarily the best time for that. We got through it fine but definitely added a lil unnecessary stress coming into the shift. - AB2 FOH Staff Observations: I haven't worked with Erika in awhile, but she is consistently positive and great to be around. World needs mo...

Manager Communication:  Quiet opening round, which gave bartenders plenty of time to take care of some small organizational tasks behind the bars before service kicked off. JH The night was lively. Shout out to everyone of FOH team for being on top of things. Trees was really hit hard due to the DJ and the Tremors party came and hung out on the Mez.  -GS Customer Comments: Booming night. Lots of people from TH1 event and the TH7 Tremors party came and hung out. Really great night.  -GS BAR Staff Observations: Jericho was crushing it tonight. Natasha and Matthew were whipping him into shape, really hammering in how to call out busy theater tickets. It went really well, he was calling things out, adapting to notes they were giving- one ticket got lost in the shuffle and Jericho pointed out the wait time, we completed the ticket and delivered it to the guests, no guest was aware of the delay. good vibes all aroud . FOH Staff Observations: Bruce was really on it today. Sick L...

Manager Communication:   Gus stopped by on both ends of the day to check in with everyone.-LB  Pretty mellow evening, with things definitely winding down after the last round Sinners had seated.  Service was pretty steady throughout the evening, and Trees had a nice little crowd until about 10:30pm. JH BAR Staff Observations:  Really smooth work across both bars tonight, with Jeshua and Matthew handling a pretty busy Trees bar and service pass, and Gabrielle walking Jericho through the finer points of Lobby Bar.  Matthew was able to get out of here once the late round Sinners had passed through its initial service push, and service went smoothly for the rest of the evening. JH FOH Staff Observations:  Conner is really great about running glassware or helping organize drink trays whenever he is at the service pass and has a spare moment. JH Hiring/Training:  Jericho in for Orientation and more training, will do server trail today for a bit.  My ba...

Manager Communication: Will work on scheduling a bar deep clean. Oddly enough today our Trees Lounge ice machine sprung a refrigerant leak. Unsure if this is related to anything, a copper pipe popped a hole. Gus knows and will be trying to reach Ice Medic. We can have them top off refrigerant while they are here on the frozen machines perhaps. We have the machine off. The hole is taped, although it will likely still leak all the freon. The front panel is just held on with gaffer's tape at the moment.  I did notice the water in the building seems extraordinarily hot today. I don't know if that had anything to do with this, I doubt it would be an issue but just flagging it in case a temperature differential had something to do with it. -LB Received a big delivery of glassware and was able to get it all stored away in the liquor room at the end of the night. We should be all good to go with pint glasses for a good while! Aside from the coolant leak in the ice machine, things were ...

Manager Communication: I laminated little signs and stuck them in all the over-watered plants asking people not to water them.-LB FOH Staff Observations: The woman that came to see Goodnight and Good Luck left a lasting impression on the building. She was using a walker and her anxiety turned to vitriol. Justin was exceptionally patient with her helping her around the building. And a testament to how awful, Jericho helped her at Trees lounge and afterwards he said, "20 years of bartending and that woman was the worst person I have ever dealt with." Pretty accurate sounding based on the subsequent play by plays. Glad Justin helped her because if the elevator door closed on her I am sure she would have burnt the building down.-LB Hiring/Training:  Jericho, Day 1.  Went through the checklists for the first day, and we are all caught up with the exception of scans/emails.  Jericho forgot his id, but will bring it tomorrow, and I will send on all completed, signed, and scanne...

Manager Communication: Broke out 72 new water cups. I ordered 2 cases back up to have in liquor room. I also ordered two new dish dollies to replace the ones that are on death's door. We have used all our Webstaurant credits-LB I vacuumed and sprayed air into the compressor of the frozen machine in the lobby, it was pretty dusty. Hoping that will help it freeze. I do think we need to consider freon levels, sometimes when the atmospheric pressure changes this type of machinery is slow to rebound. -LB The evening service was extremely busy in all the theaters, and the team (all around) absolutely crushed. Glassware was constantly being replenished, drinks were being paced out wonderfully, and the bar was cranking. The prep work of Lauren and the day time team was immaculate, and because the servers and runners were SO GOOD with running glassware all night, things ran about as smooth as I could ever hope for. More of this please! - IP Customer Comments: Justine came to the bar to repo...